Microbiologists at Work: Erika Bognar Erika is a Senior Food Safety Manager at Sargento Foods Inc, where she juggles good manufacturing practices, chemical testing, and communications between microbiologists and corporate offices. How did you end up at your I may spend time on the current position? Did you production floor working with . always imagine food safety new QA employees whom I Education: as a career? mentor in swabbing and basic * BS Biology, Marian University, | 1 ended up in my current microbiology. I consut and Fond du Lac, WI position by luck. I was not perform walkthroughs on new ‘+ MS Food Safety, Michigan exposed to sdence line and construction projects. State University, EastLansing, | opportunities within the food I service R&D and Sales as a MC industry while studying for my food safety subject matter Certifications: undergrad. We were mosty expert on new products and ‘ASQ, Certified Manager of focused on, and being prepped customer education. I provide Quality/Organizational for, research, pre-professional, leadership to the Corporate Excellence or medical laboratory careers. Microbiology Laboratory and FSMA-PCQI, Preventive work on strategy, budgets , Controls Qualified Individual 1 am privileged to live in a and testing methodology % Innovation Center for US Dalry | community heavily populated questions. I also travel and — Dairy Plant Food Safety with food manufacturers, spend time partidpating in Workshop, Volunteer particularly cheese companies. regulatory, industry, and Instructor, My first job out of college was ‘customer collaboration efforts. working for an Italian cheese making company in a What is your favorite part QA/Microbiology role. My main of your job? responsibilities induded testing My passion is for teaching the raw milk/whey/cheese and next generation within our antbiotics, somatic cells, organization (and beyond — Wha microbiology, chemistry, within our industry), PET ‘organdleptic attributes; as well as preparing media, swabbing Therefore, my favorite part of and plating sanitation, and the job is working with new environmental controls. QA and production/sanitation See Geeks employees and seeing the pea var beestl tamer ar the What is a regular day like depth of their knowledge dhezsa eres for you? increase in microbiology and . Soa In my current role I serve as food safety, The best partis fennel pit a ee liaison to the manufacturing witnessing their understanding : faclities for of manufacturing and sanitation/enMironmental sanitation practices—as they monitoring and product are working through a Pathogen/microbiology testing. _ sanitation or environmental@) jj D [est Moen eae salt, lactic acid bacteria, and eae aor oe aa) altered by additional ingredients and processing oT een Cpa aes enzyme chymosin and is eT Rrra las Tn Moe Aaa ec lame lames cheese are not known, cheese-making goes back more than 4,000 years! oF inwestigation/swabbing — when “the light bub goes on” and they can identify a root cause and make a recommendation for corrective action. What advice would you give to students who are interested in seeking industry jobs with a microbiology degree? My best advice for students is to consider incorporating some business classes into their degree, espedally if you want to pursue Supervisory or Management positions during your career. Get out there and explore internships to learn what you like and discover what companies like about you, or what opportunities for development they identify. From a recruitment standpoint 1 favor students who are well balanced between academics and work experiences, and many companies offer tuition reimbursement to further academic pursuits. Students will then have dearer perspectives on what tradk they want or need to focus on. Step out of the classroom and seek educational opportunities around regulation, food safety and best practices — FSMA, Food Safety Plans, PCQI, Auditing, Food Safety Cuiture, GFSI, etc. What's your favorite type of cheese? 4+ year aged cheddar, (prosine aystals, its like candy!)